Why You Need More Protein in Menopause (Not Less)

Feeling tired, puffy, or stuck in your workouts? It might be a protein problem. In this episode of The Menopause Method, Cam Allen breaks down exactly why protein matters more than ever in midlife — for your metabolism, hormones, muscle, energy, and even your mood.

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You’ll learn:

• Why most women 45+ are under-eating protein (by a lot!)
• How much protein you really need (based on your goals)
• The best way to space it out during the day
• Why timing protein around your workouts matters (and why Cam is anti-fasted workouts)
• Easy, no-stress ideas to get 30g of protein per meal
  
  

Key Takeaways:

• Most midlife women are under-eating protein — often by half.
• What worked in your 20s doesn't cut it anymore. Your body needs more, not less, to thrive in menopause.
• Protein is essential for more than just muscle — it's key for mood, metabolism, energy, and recovery.
• Your body uses protein less efficiently in midlife, so you need more to get the same benefits.
• Aim for 0.7–1g of protein per pound of your ideal lean body weight.
• 30 grams of protein per meal is the sweet spot.
• This is the minimum needed to trigger muscle protein synthesis — anything less and you're not getting the full benefit.
• Timing matters: eat protein before and after your workouts.
• Fasted workouts can spike cortisol and backfire in midlife. Fueling your body supports better strength gains and recovery.
• You don’t need to be perfect — you just need to be consistent-ish.
• Simple go-tos like collagen, Greek yogurt, tuna, and protein bowls can make it easier.
• Protein is a form of self-respect — not a punishment.
• When you nourish your body intentionally, everything works better: energy, hormones, workouts, and how you feel in your skin.

Timestamps:

00:00 Midlife Protein Needs Explained

05:38 Protein Boosts Post-Workout Gains

08:30 Protein-Packed Meal Ideas

11:39 Suitcase Essentials for Healthy Travel

Grab your Greek yogurt, friend. Let’s make protein simple, doable, and delicious.

✨ Say hi on Instagram: @heymomma_cam
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Transcript

0:00

Log in to Instagram and within thirty seconds, you're gonna see the message, eat more protein in menopause. This episode is gonna tell you why that matters so much. Welcome back to Menopause Method. My name is Cam Allen, and we're gonna talk about protein today. This podcast was designed to help you cut through the noise that you hear on social media and do things that really matter to improve your health and your energy. And today, we're gonna talk about protein. Honestly, I have a really shady past with protein. For years, I was a vegetarian. And at age 49, I had a hysterectomy, which led to surgical menopause. And I would say about six months into menopause, I innately intuitively knew I needed animal protein in my life. That's when I started my journey eating more animal protein. And I know now that protein helps your metabolism. It helps your hormones and supports your workouts. It's kind of like all these things work together. And honestly, that's what we want. Our goals to have the metabolism that we want, the energy that we want to do life, and all of these things work together. So if you've ever wondered how much protein do I really need, this episode is for you. So the thing about it is protein hits different in midlife. And let's be real, You already know this, but what worked for you in your 20s and 30s just doesn't cut it anymore. In fact, what I see is most midlife women are eating about half of what they need in a day, About half. I do have my clients tracked for a while to understand exactly how much food are they eating, how much protein are they getting, and how is it affecting their mood, their energy, their workouts, recovery, all the things. Because protein has its hand in all of those things. Why does this matter so much? Here's some bad news. We started losing muscle at age around 35. That's really sad to me because I didn't start lifting weights until I was 41. And we know that the muscle loss accelerates in menopause. So less muscle means a slower metabolism. Please go back and check out the three part series on metabolism to learn more about, like, what's really happening. And we also know when we have less strength, we have more fat storage. That is a problem. No one wants that. We want a fast metabolism and we want less fat storage. So protein is one of the things that unlocks our metabolism's door, if you will. Also, at this stage, our body doesn't actually use protein as efficiently anymore. And because we're not using it as efficiently, that means our need actually increases. So if you're eating some protein, it might not be enough to do the job. We actually need more protein in midlife, not less. And I just want you to rest assured, this is not about bulking up. How much protein do you actually need? Now at first, it's going to seem overwhelming, and I don't want it to be. Really, it's just about being intentional, saying where's my protein on my plate? Let's go. So let's talk about how much you actually need. Now this is a general target based on general goals. Yours may be a little bit different based on what you're working on specifically. But I want you to think about your ideal lean body weight. And then that is how many grams of protein I'd like for you in a day. Now you can lower it a little bit like point seven to one gram per lean body weight. So for example, if your ideal lean body weight was one fifty, that's anywhere from one zero five to 150 grams of protein every single day. When you start tracking your protein and realizing how little you're actually eating, it is eye opening. The goals you're working on are on the other side of the protein that you're not eating. So give it a try. I would invest in a food scale. I have my clients weigh everything in grams. So that way it's very accurate. So on your food scale, switch the units to grams, and then figure out how many grams you're eating. We track in Cronometer, it's extremely accurate. And it also breaks down all the vitamins and the minerals which make a really big deal when it comes to midlife. The best way to do this is to spread your protein throughout your day, but kind of generally aim for about 30 grams per meal. And you may have heard 30 grams before, like, why is everyone saying 30 grams on Instagram? Well, here it is. Here's the reason why. 30 grams is actually the sweet spot where your body actually turns it into muscle and not just into energy. If you're getting less than that, you're missing the full benefit of all the things that protein can help you with. So what exactly is the workout connection and does timing of your protein actually matter? Okay. You're probably gonna ruffle some feathers with this one, but I am anti fasted workout. And I know the faster way is an example. They encourage fasted workouts. But in midlife, that is going to backfire. Cortisol is a storage hormone and fasted workouts tend to tip midlife women over the edge and in too much cortisol. Cortisol is catabolic, meaning you can't build muscle when you're in a catabolic state. In fact, cortisol is a storage hormone for belly fat. And that is the opposite of what you're trying to do. So I encourage you to surround your workouts with protein. Before you work out 100, two hundred calories, that's all you need just to take the edge off so your body doesn't go into panic mode. And also, you're gonna notice that the quality of your workouts are going to increase when you actually have fuel on board. And then after your workout, you've used your muscles and they are ready to soak up all the nutrition. And after your workout, aim for that 30 grams or more of protein. So just think about surrounding your workouts with protein, then you're gonna notice better effort when you're there, better recovery between your workouts, less soreness, and actually more strength gains, which is exactly why you're doing it. Your body is definitely more sensitive to nutrients after you exercise. So eating after you exercise is your window, don't waste it. You just did all this effort in the gym, go put some protein on your plate and enjoy every single bite of it, knowing that the workouts and the protein are gonna work together to help you reach your goals faster. In fact, this is interesting, I found a study that strength training plus enough protein actually doubles doubles the impact of muscle gain and women over 40. That's significant. Again, making your workouts work for you by just eating afterwards is huge. I'm gonna say this again, because it's important surrounding your workouts with nutrition will actually keep your body out of panic mode and keep your cortisol at bay. The funny thing about cortisol is the right amount of cortisol is your get up and go. Maybe you're the kind of person when you wake up in the morning, you get the most of your to do list done in the morning. That is totally me. That's your cortisol. The problem is when we're running on cortisol day in, day out all day, we're never going into the rest mode, we're always on the go mode. What happens is cortisol is catabolic, it doesn't let you build muscles. That's what that means. And also, it's a fat storage hormone. Because if you're running on this energy, like this crazy energy all the time, your body's like, well, I guess I need to store this fat because I don't know if I'm gonna eat again, and I don't know what's happening. We don't want that to happen. So keeping nutrition around your workouts will keep your body out of panic mode. And I bet you're gonna notice that your recovery and your effort during the workouts is going to improve. So I wanna talk about what 30 grams of protein actually looks like. Now, as I shared earlier, this animal protein thing, I've been doing it for six years now, but it was new to me. Like, how in the world do you get all this protein in? So one of my one of the first things I did was started out adding collagen to my coffee. So two scoops of collagen in the morning, that's around 20 grams of protein. That seems to be a down mover for most women to get up to that hundred or more grams. 20 grams of collagen is super helpful. My second favorite thing is Greek yogurt. If you've seen me on Instagram stories, I share my Greek yogurt often. So my Greek yogurt is usually the base. Again, I use my food scale in grams to know exactly how much I'm eating. And then what I'll do is I'll add either chia seeds or basil seeds and then some kind of frozen berries. Today, I had a mix of cherries and blueberries because why not? And that right off the bat is gonna be 30 grams or more of protein, depending how much you put in the bowl. Another meal that's in heavy rotation at our house is a grilled steak bowl. We love making bowls. So imagine a nice bowl with a bed of lettuce, mixed greens, some quinoa, maybe some lentils, quinoa and lentils both have protein in them. And then whatever roasted veggies you like, we always have sweet potatoes, or something like that. And then add some grilled steak. Oh my goodness. It's delicious. You're getting all the things that you need. When I eat a steak bowl, I feel amazing. And again, that's probably 35, 40 grams of protein easily. Another version of our bowl, sometimes we'll mix it up. We'll do either shrimp in the air fryer or sometimes we'll do grilled salmon. But the base of the bowl kind of rotates based on the leftovers we have, what vegetables we have. Do we have lentils? Do we have quinoa? Just kinda like mixing it up. It is delicious. For those that like cottage cheese, cottage cheese is another great way to add protein to your life. You can mix cottage cheese in with your eggs. If you do scrambled eggs, you can mix cottage cheese absolutely with anything. Go check out all the recipes on TikTok. The biggest takeaway about hitting your protein goal is just having a plan for it. Make it easy on yourself to hit that protein goal. Here are my best tips to help you hit your protein goal without, like, obsessing over every single thing that you eat. First of all, start your day with protein. There's no need to save it for dinner. I don't know why we do that in America. I'm much happier and healthier and more energy if I eat more food earlier in the day rather than a big dinner at night. So start your day with protein. Make sure you're adding think about the protein every time you eat. Where is it? Where am I gonna eat? Where where is it? Put it on your plate first. Make sure it's there. Keep easy go to things on hand like Greek yogurt, hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese. I love safe catch tuna. That's another idea. Don't be afraid to preheat meals, you know, especially the ones that you like, like our bowls. Our bowls are pretty stable. What we'll do is we'll mix up the ingredients, the vegetables and the protein, but it's still the same. It's kind of like mix and match if you will. The thing about it is you don't have to be perfect when it comes to eating more protein, you just need to be consistent ish, if you will. So final thoughts about this. Protein is not just about muscle, but it's also about your mood, your metabolism, and how you feel in your body. And those things really matter. If you feel like you've been doing all the things, but your energy is still low and your recovery is slow and you're not responding to exercise like you think you should, protein might be the missing link. If you found me at this episode helpful, reach out on Instagram and say hi at hey mama underscore cam. I love hearing from you. And be sure to like, follow, and share this episode with other women struggling with the same thing. In the next episode, we're gonna dive into what do I have in my suitcase. I'm getting ready to travel for actually eight or nine days to Dallas for certification, and I'm packing. And I thought, well, this will be a great time for you to have a behind the scenes look of what I'm putting in my suitcase so I can stay on track with my health and fitness goals and feel good in my body. Because believe me, my old ways when I used to go on vacation was eat like a jerk, drink like a fish, and feel crummy. Let me tell you those days are over. Taking care of myself while I travel is actually a form of self respect. Be sure to tune in next week so you can see what's in my suitcase. Okay. If you have any questions, reach out on Instagram. Thanks for being here.